feo SH kM ON 


DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE 


GENERAL CONVENTION 


OF THE 


Arotestant Episcopal Church 


IN THE 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
IN TRINITY CHURCH, 


IN - THE CivTy oF NEW YORK, 
ire BOONES DAY, OCT. 7th,-. 1868, 


BY THE 
RIGHT REV. ALFRED LEE, D. D. 


BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF DELAWARE. 


NEW YORK: 
Printed for the Convention, 


1868, 


IN GENERAL CONVENTION. 


><@>-< 


Hous oF CLERICAL AND LAY DEPUTIES, 


October 8th, A. D. 1868. 


On motion of the Rev. DANIEL R. Goopwin, D. D., 
L. L. D., of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, it was 


Resolved,—That the Secretary be directed to request 
a copy of the sermon preached by the Right Rev. ALFRED 
LEE, D. D., Bishop of Delaware, at the opening of this 
Convention; and that fifteen hundred copies of the same 
be printed for the use of the Convention. 


From the Journal, 


Attest, 
WILLIAM STEVENS PERRY, 


Secretary of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. 


The Aldine Press, Sutton, Bowne & Co., 23 Liberty St., N.Y. _ 


“SERMON. 


“He THAT HATH AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT 
SAITH UNTO THE CHURCHES.”—REV. Ir: 7. 


The Epistles to the Seven Churches of procon- 
sular Asia, at the opening of the Apocalypse, are 
an exceedingly impressive portion of Holy 
Writ. The glorified Jesus himself is the speaker, 
and his words are indeed quick and powerful—the 
words of Him out of whose mouth goeth a sharp 
two-edged sword. Our Lord isshown to us clothed 
with divine majesty, so that the disciple whom he 
loved, and who had once leaned upon his bosom, 
fell at his feet as dead. The messages then deliv- 
ered are entitled to our most careful and earnest 
attention, in whatever aspect they are regarded. 
Are the Epistles of Paul, Peter and John of sur- 
passing interest and importance? These are the 
Epistles of Him, the latchet of whose shoes they were 
not worthy to unloose! Are the words of the in- 
carnate Christ a treasure beyond all price? These 
are the words of the glorified Christ! Does every 
thing that fell from his lips during his sojourn npon 
earth, to whomsoever spoken, or upon whatever 
occasion, claim our reverence and study? Here 


4 


Jesus is not arguing with enemies or teaching the 
multitude, but addressing his own heritage and 
flock. He speaks to the Church, not to the world. 
Do we close the last gospel with a feeling of regret 
that the Evangelist should not have left us an ampler 
record of those many things which Jesus did and 
taught? Here we listen to new and sublimer 
words spoken by the Lord after the heavens had 
recelved Him. The Son of God comes forth from 
the most holy place that he may again instruct His 
people. The voice which had made our hearts burn 
within us with its lessons of faith and love, which 
had spoken, as it seemed, its farewell upon Olivet, 
which we expected not to hear again until it sum- 
moned the dead to judgment, that voice again 
calls, but it is no longer a still, small voice, but as 
the sound of many waters. Well may the Church 
catch every tone and syllable with open ear and 
bended knee. 

Is it not to be regretted, fathers and brethren, that 
these sublime epistles are never read among our ap- 
pointed Scripture lessons? Why, when the other 
books of the New Testament are read over four 
times a year, and portions oftener, are these en- 
tirely omitted ? The reason assigned for not reading 
the prophetic portion of the book, supposed obscu- 
rity, whether a valid reason or not, does not apply 
in this case. Neither is it considered as justifying 
the passing by of many of the prophetic portions of 
the Old Testament. But these Epistles are not pre- 
dictions of the future, but pertain to the actual 
spiritual condition, dangers and duties of those ad- 
dressed, as much as the apostolic letters. They are 
not obscure, but eminently practical, hortative and 
searching ; full of rebuke, warning and consolation. 


5 


And though immediately addressed to the seven 
Churches of Asia, they bear on their face a general 
superscription. ‘‘ He that hath an ear, let him hear 
what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.’’ Why, 
then, should the book itself, distinguished from the 
other books of the New Testament by the announce- 
ment of a special blessing upon reader and hearer, 
be almost excluded from church services, and spe- 
cially for what good reason are our people never 
permitted to hear in public worship the words of 
Jesus Christ, meant, as He tells us, for every one 
that hath an ear? Whether we regard the author 
of these epistles, their manner of delivery, their 
subjects, their sanctions or the commendation ofthem 
to the ear and heart of every disciple of Christ, this 
- disregard of them seems unaccountable. Ifin ages 
of darkness and false doctrine this grand and solemn 
book was unwelcome to the rulers of Christendom, 
why should our reformed and Protestant Church 
banish it from her public services? Is not this a 
cogent argument, and it is by no means the only 
argument, for a revision of our Calendar ? 

We suppose then that our Lord, in these seven 
epistles, (the number seven indicating completeness), 
whatever force of immediate application they had 
to those particular bodies, is addressing the whole 
company of believers. I could not think on the 
present occasion of going into an examination of 
the several epistles. Every line of them overflows 
with holiness and wisdom—glows with light and 
love. My present object is to call your attention to 
the conclusion common to them all, connected with 
the revelation which is here made of the Lord Jesus 
in his well-known three-fold character. The regal, 
the prophetic, and the sacerdotal office of the Son of 


6 


God are here brought out with exceeding grandeur 
and power. Itis a glorious, majestic figure indeed 
which stands forth in the foreground of the marvel- 
lous delineations of the soul-stirring Apocalypse. 

I. Jesus here appears in his royalty. He is 
resplendent with the divinest majesty. On his head 
are many crowns, on his vesture and on his thigh a 
hame written, King of Kings: and Lord of Lords. 
In the opening vision he is exhibited as King in Zion, 
and Head over all things to his Church. He walk- 
eth in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and 
holdeth in his right hand the seven stars. He speaks 
as one exercising actual authority, and the govern 
ment is upon his shoulders. He hath the key of 
David. He openeth and no man shutteth. He 
shutteth and no man openeth. He is continually 
present in his Church—inspector, law-giver, sus- 
tainer, defender, punisher and rewarder. His eyes 
are as a flame of fire, piercing all disguises and 
reading the secrets of every heart. He calls his 
servants, the angels of the seven Churches, to a 
strict reckoning. ‘To him they are amenable for de- 
clensions, abuses, false doctrines and negligencies. 
The kingly office of Christ is here presented, not as 
a mere dogma, but as amighty reality. He isnota 
remote sovereign, wrapped in Oriental state and 
seclusion, indifferent to the constant exigencies of 
his kingdom, committing all actual rule and direc- 
tion to human vicegerents and representatives, but 
he is himself the immediate, present superintendent 
and governor. His royal prerogatives have never 
been deputed. No vicar has been commissioned. to 
govern the Church during his absence and to be 
‘‘another god upon earth.’”’ The mystical body of 
Christ, the blessed company of all. faithful people, 


7 


hath nota frail, sinful, mortal head. No! Jesus 
reigns—and will reign until he hath put all enemies 
under his feet—reigns in spite of all the confusions 
and disorders of earth and of all the rage and enmity 
of hell—reigns over the Church militant as well as 
as the Church triumphant—reigns now in the dark- 
ness and conflict and tempest, as certainly as he will 
reign in the light and peacefulness of the everlast- 
ing kingdom—reigns over loyal, loving, beheving 
hearts, whatever errors, contentions, discords and 
apostacies vex tho outward, visible Church. And 
the persuasion and acknowledgment of this great 
and precious truth, Christ’s actual presence, living 
headship, immediate rule and sovereignty, is a vital 
matter. Itis the walk by faith not by sight. It is 
to be kept ever in mind by individual Christians, by 
pastors, by bishops, by synods. When it is duly 
remembered love and peace will prevail and the 
bonds of charity be unbroken. The elders will 
‘‘feed the flock of Christ, not by constraint, but 
willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, 
neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but en- 
samples of the flock.’’ Instead of a compulsory, 
hollow, outward uniformity, there will be the unity 
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ecclesiastical 
legislation will be conformed to the rule of Christ’s 
word, and arrogate no dominion over the faith and 
conscience of men. Laws and enactments will be 
brought to the test of Christ’s supremacy, and there 
will be no attempt to impose human edicts under 
pretence of His authority. One way of robbing the 
Lord Jesus of his headship is by direct denial and 
contradiction—by renouncing his claims and de- 
frauding him of his glory as one with the Father in 
everlasting Godhead. Anothermode, less open, but 


8 

not less perilous, is when man ostensibly magnifies 
the nature and offices of Christ, but arrogates to 
himself the exercise of these offices. The most dan- 
gerous Anti-Christ is he who assumes to occupy the 
Saviour’s place, to speak in his name, to exercise 
his authority, and who makes Christ’s royalty a 
cloak for his own self-exaltation. What is this but 
to repeat the mockery of Calvary—to clothe Jesus 
with the purple robe and put in his hand a reed for 
a sceptre—and bow the knee and cry, Hail King 
of the Jews! All the prerogatives and honors of 
the Son of God are thus abused to the inflation of 
human pride and the domination of the mortal over 
the Lord’s flock. Ah, Jesus hath never delegated 
to man his sovereignty! His sceptre is not a reed. 
No living man or company of men are deputed to 
exercise His headship. The laws and enactments 
of the Chureh must be within the limits by him pre- 
scribed. And only sure, stable and blessed is that 
communion which ever recognizes Jesus as its Head, 
and-is careful to ordain nothing that accords not 
with his sanction. 

IT. Jesus is here revealed as the great Prophet— 
the divine teacher of his Church. His Prophetic 
office is as abiding as His Regal. In these epistles 
He instructs, admonishes and warns. We listen to 
the Searcher of hearts, the Reprover of sins and 
errors, the Foreteller of things. to come, the Denoun- 
cer of judgments, the Promiser of blessings, the Re- 
vealer of truth. We find nowhere, in the Old Tes- 
tament or the New, more impressive exhibitions of 
the prophetic character. ‘‘ Never man spake like 
this man!’ Jesus discharges his prophetic office, 
both personally, by his own mouth, and by the 
Holy Spirit. As He was not to remain visible upon 


9 

earth he hath sent his Holy Spirit to be the Para- 
clete, Guide, Enlightener and Sanctifier. This 
blessed visitant and Divine representative of the as- 
cended Lord, proceeding from the Father and the 
Son, glorified Christ by receiving of his and shewing 
to his Apostles. And as He glorifies Christ, so 
Christ glorifies Him. And, even here, where 
the Redeemer appears in such majesty and 
speaks with his own voice, he glorifies the Holy 
Spirit by claiming attention as to the Spirit’s teach- 
ing. ‘‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
Spirit saith unto the Churches.’’ As there is a one- 
ness in Father and Son, so that whatsoever the Father 
doeth, the same doeth the Son likewise; so with 
the Son and the Spirit. And especially does Christ, 
through the Spirit, convey to all generations the 
knowledge of his salvation. 

The Spirit speaks unto the Churches. Hespeaks, 
not merely in these seven epistles, but throughout 
the Scriptures, and especially those of the New Tes- 
tament. Evangelists and apostles are entitled to rev- 
erent acceptance of what they deliver because select- 
ed and set apart by the Holy Spirit to declare the 
truth of God. And whenever we hear or read the 
holy volume the same voice repeats, ‘‘ He that hath 
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the 
Churches.”’ | 

This voice of the Spirit we now hear in his lvely 
oracles, the Holy Scriptures. In them we have the 
complete sum and system of Christian doctrine and 
duty. In the words of our Sixth Article, ‘‘ Holy 
Scripture containeth all things necessary to salva- 
tion, so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may 
be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man 
that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, 


10 


or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.”’ 
God be thanked for a testimony so strong and ex- 
plicit. Here is the axe laid at the root of every tree 
of error and falsehood, every noxious growth in the 
Lord’s vineyard. Here is the sheet anchor to pre- — 
vent the ship from being drifted upon rock and 
quicksand. Here are we referred to ‘the sun by 
which the clock is to be regulated. In the volume, 
breathed upon by God, the Spirit speaks, and speaks 
intelligibly. The Scriptures are their own best in- 
terpreter. They do not need the key of traditional 
supplement or the interpretations of an infallible 
Church. The same Spirit, who spake by holy men 
of old, is ready to guide the humble and candid 
reader. ‘‘If any man lack wisdom let him ask of 
God, who giveth to all men liberally, and it shall 
be given him.’? No reader, looking in prayer and 
faith for divine guidance, hath fallen into errors so 
gross and fatal, as the masters in Israel, men of 
creat learning, lofty position and high pretensions, 
who have trusted in tradition and Church authority. 
Under each dispensation the result has been the 
same. The Scribes and Pharisees relied upon the 
traditional principle, and with what severity did 
Jesus rebuke them and charge them with making 
the word of God of none effect by their traditions. 
Under the clearer radiance of the gospel the leaders 
of the visible Church made the same unhallowed 
substitution of the human for the divine, and with 
consequences even more disastrous. Hiding the light 
and groping in darkness, they fell into one delusion 
after another, until the very Church was made a 
temple of idols, and the Bible was buried beneath a 
load of corruptions and superstitions. ‘‘ We see,”’ 
says our Homily, ‘‘ what vanity the school doctrine 


11 
is mixed with, for that in this word they sought not 
the will of God, but rather the will of reason, the 
trade of custom, the path of the fathers, the prac- 
tice of the Church.’’? (Homily for Rogation Week, 
third part. ) 

The language of our Articles and Homilies, upon 
this vital point, is clearand decisive. The trumpet 
gives no uncertain sound. Our Church constantly 
makes her appeal to the oracles of God. Even the 
Creeds, the most solemn and weighty statements of 
our faith, ‘‘are to be received and believed,’’ not 
for their antiquity, not because framed and set 
forth by councils, not because widely accepted, but 
‘* because they may be proved by most certain war- 
rants of Holy Writ.’? Here there is implied the 
duty and privilege of every man to bring even the 
most authoritative standards and symbols to the one 
unerring test. The hearer is directed to do, what 
the Bereans were commended for doing when the 
gospel was preached to them by the Apostles them- 
selves. A Church, conscious of the scriptural char- 
acter of her doctrines can confidently do this. She 
can take her stand boldly upon the firm rock of 
divine truth and challenge the fullest and most 
searching scrutiny. To rely upon tradition and 
Church interpretation is a betrayal of weakness. A 
doctrine, plainly revealed in the word of God, gathers 
no additional sanction from human testimony. 
‘*That,’? says our Homily, ‘‘ which is once confirm- 
ed by the certainty of His eternal truth hath no 
more need of the confirmation of man’s doctrine and 
writings, than the bright sun at noontide hath need 
of the light of a little candle to put away darkness 
and to increase his light.’’ (Second part of Homily 
against Peril of Idolatry.) We freely admit, indeed, 


12 
that the opinions of wise and godly men of every 
period are entitled to respectful consideration. The 


testimony of antiquity as to the outward, govern- 
ment and polity of the Church is plainly distin- 


cuishable from definitions of doctrine. And the of-— 


fice of the Church as ‘‘the witness and keeper of 
Holy Writ” is highly important. So was the Jew- 
ish Church the appointed guardian of the Old Tes- 
tament. Unto them were committed for safe keeping 
the oracles of God. And, yet, while the Jewish 
Church kept this trust with scrupulous fidelity, it 
was not therefore the safe interpreter thereof. The 
Sanhedrin kept vigilant guard over each letter and 
syllable, but they were, so far as their own opin- 
ions prevailed, blind leaders: of the blind, and re- 
jected Him of whom Moses and the prophets. did 
write. They who argue that, because the Church wit- 
nesses to the apostolic origin of the books of the 


New Testament and transmits them unimpaired x 


from age to age, she is to be regarded as an uner- 
ring interpreter of the same, are bound by their own 
principles to acquiesce in the decisions of the Jewish 
Church respecting the meaning of the Old Testa- 
ment. One obvious reason why divine revelations 
for ages to come are Scriptures, is to guard against 
the inevitable mistakes and perversions incident to 
oral transmission. The claim is sometimes put 
forth that we can obtain the mind of the Spirit 
from the decrees of General Councils. Although 
Article X XI. of the Church of England was not 
reenacted by our own Church, this was not from 
any questioning of its statements. According 
to the strict definition of a General Council, an as- 
semblage of all the bishops of Christendom or 


their proxies, no such assemblage has ever con- 


a 


13 


vened. All that have assumed the title have been 
minorities. If convened, the question is more easily 
asked than answered, Who gave the bishops, with- 
- out concurrent voice of clergy and laity, the power 
to decide all controversies? What evidence that 
they are the mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost? Some- 
thing more is required than their own assumption. 
They cannot bear witness of themselves. ‘‘ And 
when they are gathered together (forasmuch as they 
be an assemblage of men whereof all be not govern- 
ed by the word and Spirit of God) they may err, 
and sometimes have erred in things pertaining unto 
God. Wherefore things ordained by them as neces- 
sary to salvation have neither strength nor anthority 
unless it may be declared that they are taken out of 
the Holy Scriptures.”’ * 

In truth, the history of Councils is a humiliating 
chapter in ecclesiastical annals. Weare reminded of 
“the prodigious disparity between the Apostles and 
those who claimed to be their Successors. Ambition 
- and intrigue, prejudice and passion, rancor and bitter- 
ness, prelatical rivalries and secular dictation deform 
their deliberations, and detract from the weight of 
their conclusions. The old father, Gregory Nazian- 
zen, conspicuous in one of the most esteemed of the 
councils, so lamented the corruption, ambition and 
contention which prevailed in them that he heartily 
desired never to see another. For any good that has 
flowed from these assemblages, for the fact that at 
a critical period the fathers of Niczea bore a noble 
testimony to the supreme Godhead of the Lord 
Jesus, instead of being imposed upon by cr afty 
errorists like those at Ariminium, we may be de- 
voutly thankful. But the pretensions of Councils 


* Art. XXI. of Church of England. 


14 


to be oracular and unerring become from age to age 
increasingly preposterous, until, at Trent, it was in 
the mouth of scoffers that the Holy Ghost was sent 


down from Rome ina post-bag. ‘‘To the law and 
to the testimony. If they speak not according to this 
rule there is no light in them.’’ The remedy for 


errors, falsehoods, strifes and divisions is renewed 
and more sincere, submissive application to the 
heaven-kindled light. The evils complained of, 
whatever they may be, have arisen from ignorance 
or rejection of the teachings of God’s word—plainer 
in their own transparent clearness than labored and 
perplexing and perverse comments. And the only 
safety against shipwreck is to consult again the 
chart and the compass. ‘‘Hethat hath an ear, let 
him hear what the Spir7é saith unto the Churches,”’ 
not his self-elected interpreters. Why make our 
appeal to Councils and fathers, to patristic or 
medieeval or modern definitions, when we have veri- 
tably infallible guidance—the guidance of the men 
upon whose heads rested the cloven flames at Pen- 
tecost, and whose names are on the foundation- 
stones of the new Jerusalem? The Apostles, the 
only unerring guides and governors of the Church, 
live as perpetual witnesses to the truth. They 
speak now, as they spoke of old, with decision and 
clearness. Wecan consult them with greater con- 
venience than could their own contemporaries. For 
they are not now dispersed over the earth. Their 
testimony 1s combined and complete. Points which 
they have not settled never will be settled under the 
present dispensation. And, where they have spoken, 
there is no appeal. An eminent divine, identified 
with the movement that has for so many years dis- 
tracted the Church of England, avows his readiness 


15 


to defend ‘‘the real objective presence, the Euchar- 
istic sacrifice, and the adoration of our Lord truly 
present under the Eucharistic symbols as being the 
teaching of the whole Catholic Church from the 
time of the Apostles.”” He does not defend it as 
the teaching of the Apostles themselves. Then we 
say, even if the claim could be substantiated, to 
what does it amount? The whole Catholic Church, 
from the first century to the twentieth, cannot 
establish a doctrine unrevealed in scripture, re- 
specting which the Apostles are silent, or which con- 
tradicts their teaching. This is our Rock from 
which nothing can move us. The Church is built 
upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, 
and our confidence is firm and unwavering that by 
them no important question is unanswered—no vital 
truth undiscovered—no divine requirement left in 
obscurity or doubt. 

Ill. Jesus presents himself in this vision in his 
sacerdotal character, the great High Priest. He is 
emblematically clothed with the long priestly gar- 
ment, and walketh in the midst of the golden can- 
dlesticks as the minister of the true tabernacle.-— 
His is a royal and everlasting Priesthood, after the 
order of Melchisedec. In him the. patterns of 
heavenly things, presented in the temple service, 
have their antitype and reality. His humanity 
the living temple, his cross the altar of sacrifice, his 
death the sacrifice itself—his ascension the entrance 
within the veil to perfect the atonement, his inter- 
cession the burning incense, his pardon the benedic- 
tion. All the shadows of the ceremonial law find in 
him their substance. He concentrates in himself 
all the typical offices of the Aaronic priesthood, and 


16 


hath absorbed them in his own glorious ministra- 
tion. And those shadows, having served their pur- 
pose, vanished. Neither have they been ever re- 
enacted and restored. The gospel dispensation is 
no mere echo and repetition of the Mosaic. If so, 
we might look back with envy upon the privileges 
of ancient Israel. Itis a poor degraded copy that 
the modern priest gives us of that grand and divine- 
ly ordered ritual. Where is the ever-burning fire 
upon the altar first kindled from heaven? Where 
the ark of the Covenant and the Cherubim of glory 
overshadowing the mercy seat, and the Urim and 
Thummim, and the indwelling Shechinah? Is 
this pitiful mimicry the substitute for the Aaronic 
priesthood—these tawdry vestments the garments of 
glory and beauty—this bowing and bending and. 
crossing before a gaping crowd, is this the solemn 
and reverent ministration of anointed Aaron and his 
sons? God forbid! No; we are not abandoned to 
mockery like this. “We have such a High Priest, 
who is set on the right hand of the throne of the 
Majesty in the heavens : a minister of the sanctuary 
and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched 
and not man.”’ ‘‘For Christ is not entered into the 
holy places made with hands, which are the figures 
of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in 
the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should 
offer himself often, as the High Priest entereth into 
the holy place every year with blood of others; for 
then must he often have suffered since the founda- 
tion of the world: but now once in the end of the 
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sac- 
rifice of himself. And asit is appointed unto men 
once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ 
was once offered to bear the sins of many.”’ ‘‘* This 


oly 
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for- 
ever, sat down on the right hand of God. For by 
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are 
sanctified.”’ 

The language of the Epistle to the Hebrews toler- 
ates no longer a sacrificing mortal priesthood. Je- 
sus Christ is the one everlasting, exclusive Priest. 
The phraseology of the New Testament is precise. 
The Holy Spirit guided the pen of the writers. Now 
it is a marked and deeply significant feature of 
their style never to give to the Ministers of the gos- 
pel the title peculiar to the Priesthood. Such an 
omission can only be explained by the overruling 
direction of the Spirit. The writers, left to them- 
selves, would naturally have fallen into the ideas 
and language familiar to them as Jews. In fact, no 
religion prior to Christianity was without sacrifices 
andasacrificial order. Jewand Gentile would alike 
look for such institutions. But, never, not in a sin- 
gle instance, do the New Testiment writers give to 
the Christian Minister, as his distinctive title, the 
word appropriated to the Aaronic Priesthood. Offi- 
cially, he is never the Hierews. The word itself oc- 
curs frequently. It designates Jewish and even 
heathen priests. It is given to the whole body of 
Christians. All the faithful are ‘‘a holy nation, a 
royal priesthood.’’? Assuch they offer unto the Lord 
spiritual sacrifices, the sacrifices of prayer and 
praise, and their own bodies to be a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable to God, as their reasonable service. 
Ministers and people constitute, with perfect equal- 
ity, this Basileion Hierateuma. But when the 
Ministry are specified and discriminated the word is 
invariably omitted. A diversity of names and titles 
is applied to them: Pastors, teachers, stewards, 


18 

evangelists, overseers, ambassadors. We have 
Apostolos, Angelos, Hpiskopos, Presbuteros, Dia- 
konos; but no where, Aiereus. In the Epistles, 
specially addressed to the Ministry and wherein 
their duties are enumerated, there is no mention 
whatever of the offering of sacrifices or of sacerdo- 
tal mediation. The work of the preacher, pastor, 
expositor of the Scriptures is prominent, in the case 
of presiding officers, of government, discipline and 
ordination, but not a syllable of sacrificial and me- 
diatorial offices. Now, in every religion that has a 
priesthood and sacrifice, they constitute the central 
and principal feature—stand out in the very front, 
engross the greatest attention and chiefest rever- 
ence. The whole system takes shape and coloring 
from this controling element. How then could the 
inspired writers more impressively convey the entire 
abolition under the gospel of a priesthood offering 
propitiatory sacrifice? Itisa low and disparaging 
view of inspiration, to treat such silence as unim- 
portant ; an unwarranted tampering to foist into the 
gospel economy a dogma, which the writers of the 
New Testament virtually repudiate. Rationalism 
is chargeable with taking no more audacious liber- 
ties with the word of God than this. 

_ This error cannot be justified by an appeal to the 
early fathers, even if such appeal could be fully 
sustained. Antiquity had no more privilege to im- 
pose articles of faith or to add to the Scriptures than 
any subsequent age. But we little doubt that if 
some of the venerable fathers, who were ornaments 
of the early Church, could have foreseen the abuses 
that would result from their unguarded expressions, 
and the portentous fabric of error and spiritual des- 
potism that would be built upon their departures 


dan pha lea ave “ 
“ee | _— — 


19 


from the language of the Scriptures, they would 
have wished their right hands to wither before writ- 
ing, and their tongues to cleave to the roof of their 
mouth before uttering, such words. We read them 
now instructed by the lessons of ages. Long cen- 
turies of darkness and bondage have manifested the 
noxious growth that has sprung from seeds incau- 
tiously sown. And for us to be drawn away from 
the simplicity of the gospel by reverence for human 
authority, will be utterly inexcusable. A review of 
the progress of this seminal error, until it produced 
its natural development in the Romish system, is the 
best comment on the avoidance by the writers of the 
New Testament of aught that in the least degree could 
sanction or favor it. 

The assumption by the ministry of the gospel of 
the sacerdotal character is an invasion and usurpa— 
tion of the exclusive priesthood of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The priesthood and propitiatory sacrifice 
are inseparable. The one cannot long be disjoined 
from the other. And, therefore, when the minister 
is transformed into a priest, the ordinance that com- 
memorates the death of Christis transmuted into a 
sacrifice. The Hucharistis represented as an offering 
up of the Lamb of God as he was once offered upon 
the Cross. So thatthe atonement made by the death of 
the Lord Jesus no longer sufiices for men’s salvation. 
It is not, what the Epistle to the Hebrews declares 
it to be, of perpetual efficacy ; nor, in the words of 
our Church, ‘‘the full, perfect and sufficient sacri- 
fice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the 
whole world.’? The arrogant mortal pretends to re, 
peat the awful transaction of Calvary, and to per. 
fect what the Son of God left incomplete. If the 
intrusion of men, not called of God, into the offices 


20 

of the Aaronic priesthood, was under the old dis- 
pensation a sin so heinous, what must be the guilt 
and peril of intruding into the peculiar, sublime and 
awful office of the great High Priest of the everlast- 
ing gospel? Well may it be for those claiming such 
powers to enquire who are in danger now of com- 
mitting Korah’s sin. 

The unhappy influences of this corruption upon 
the religious interests of men have been shown 
wherever it has prevailed. ‘There 1s produced a sac- 
erdotal caste, encroaching and self-exalting, claiming 
to grasp in their hand the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven and usurping dominion over faith and con- 
science. And men, ignorant of the way of life, love 


to have it so, because it favors a religion of substi- | 


tution and proxy—the priest transacting for the peo- 
ple, and his supposed sanctity or sacerdotal offices 
relieving them from the necessity of personal holi- 
ness. This I maintain to be the tendency of the 
system. Other influences may occasionally prevent 
the full development. But, almost invariably, in 
place of the reasonable service which pertains to the 
gospel, grateful consecration to Christ, intelligent 
faith, affectionate obedience, the worship of the Father 
in spirit and in truth—light, and trust, and peace, 
and liberty, and love, there will be the spirit of bond- 
age, and inquietude, and multiplied outward forms 
which bring no rest to the soul. The penitent sin- 
ner is drawn away from the one Mediator between 
God and man, and debarred immediate access to the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of beholding as with 
open face the glory of the Lord, entering into the 
holiest by the blood of Jesus by the new and living 
way—deriving pardon, grace and life eternal directly 
from the great Head, he is thrust aside by the self— 


21 


styled priest. ‘Cometome. There is no access to 
Christ but through the Church, and I represent the 
Church. Your sin remaineth until washed away by 
my baptism and remitted by my absolution. The 
sacrifice made upon the Cross avails you not until I 
offer up Jesus again upon my altar.’ Isthere, dear 
brethren, one Mediator between God and man? Or 
are there ten thousand ? 

This theory, thattheChristian Ministry is asacerdo- 
tal caste, is not countenanced by the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church. No marvel that the word, Protestant, 
upon our banner, is an offence to those who favor it, 
and that such attempts are now made to disparage and 
vilify the men of the Reformation. The Church 
which affirms (Art. XX XI.) ‘‘ The offering of Christ 
once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation 
and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, 
both original and actual, and there is no other sat- 
isfaction for sin butthat alone. Wherefore, the sac- 
rifices of Masses, in which it was commonly said 
that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the 
dead to have remission of pain or guilt, were blas- 
phemous fables and dangerous deceits’’—the Church 
whose reformers gave their bodies to be burned for 
this very testimony, could not certainly maintain 
the kindred error. When the sacrifice is swept 
away the sacrificer goes with it. ‘To argue from the 
use of the word Priest, as the title of one of the or- 
ders of our Ministry, is unworthy of a man of in- 
telligence and candor. I need not say to an audi- 
ence like this that the word is the old English form 
of Presbyter. By lapse of time the popular appre- 
hension of words varies, and priest has come to be 
taken by many as if it were the translation of hie- 
reus or sacerdos. Wedonotadmit the argument 


22 


brought against Episcopacy from the use of the 
word, bishop, in the New Testament, as synonym- 
ous with Presbyter or elder, and with equal justice 
we deny any force whatever in the attempt to argue 
from the contracted form of the word Presbyter.— 
We find no warrant for this assumption, where, if 


it had the sanction of our Church, we might expect: 


to find it, in the Communion service, or the Ordinal. 
Contrast our mode of setting apart the Presbyter to 
his work with the consecration of a Priest in the 
Church of Rome. Our Bishop delivers into the 
hands of the person to be ordained the Bible, and 
says: ‘‘Take thou authority to preach the word of 
God, and to minister the holy sacraments in the 


congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appoint-_ 


ed thereunto.’’ To the candidate for the Romish 
Priesthood there is delivered a chalice with wine 
and water, anda paten with a host lying upon it, 
and it is said: ‘* Receive thou power to offer sacri- 
fice to God, and to celebrate masses as well for the 
living as the dead.’’? (Ordo Romanus.) As to the in— 
tended application of the words of our Lord (John 
XX., 22, 23), introduced in one of the ordaining 
formule, we have the advantage of contemporaneous 
interpretation. We know from the writings of our 
Reformers how they understood these words, and 
we deny the lawfulness of putting upon them a 
different meaning, and one wholly opposed to the 
views of those Reformers. There is no more au- 
thoritative exposition than Bp Jewell’s Apology, a 
book that may be deemed well nigh symbolical.— 
‘“Wesay’’ are his words ‘‘that the office of loosing 
consisteth in this point that the minister, either by 
the preaching of the gospel offereth the merits of 
Christ and full pardon to such as have lowly and 


er ee, =~ 


23 


contrite hearts, and do unfeignedly repent them- 
selves, pronouncing unto the same a sure and un- 
doubting forgiveness of their sins and hope of ever- 
lasting salvation ; or, else, that the same minister, 
when any have offended their brothers’ minds with 
some great offence, or notable and open crime, 
whereby they have, as it were banished, and made 
themselves strangers from the common fellowship 
and from the body of Christ, then, after perfect 
amendment of such persons doth reconcile them and 
bring them home again and restore them to the 
company and unity of the faithful. We say also 
that the minister doth execute the authority of bind- 
ing and shutting as often as he shutteth up the gate 
of the kingdom of heaven against unbelieving and 
stubborn persons, denouncing upon them God’s ven- 
geance and everlasting punishment; or else, when 
he doth quite shut them out from the bosom of 
the Church by open excommunication.’  ‘‘ And 
touching the keys wherewith they may either shut 
or open the kingdom of heaven, we with Chrysos- 
tom say, ‘They be the knowledge of the scriptures,’ 
with Tertullian we say, ‘They be the interpretation 
of the law ;’ and with Eusebins we call them, ‘the 
word of God.’’’* Accordingly, Bp. Jewell’s Jesuit 
antagonist charges the Anglican Church with con- 
founding the offices of preaching and absolution. 
‘Tf,’ he objects, ‘‘the great benefit consist in pro- 
nouncing or denouncing the gospel, then why might 
not every layman, yea women, yea young boys and 
girls assoil sinners. Yea, why might not every man 
assoil himself!’’ +Abp. Secker, quoted by Bp. Brow- 
nell in his commentary on the Prayer Book, re- 


* Jewell’s Apology, page 60, Parker Ed, 
+ Defence of Apology, page 354, 


24 


marks: ‘‘The Bishop does not pretend to grant, 
by uttering these words, all the powers which the 
Apostles had in this respect. They had the dis- 
cernment of spirits, and could say with certainty 
when persons were penitent and consequently for- 
given, and when not. They were able also to inflict 
miraculous punishment on offenders: and to re- 
move on their repentance the punishments which 
had been inflicted. These words will convey no- 
thing of all this to the person now to be ordained. 
But, still, when the Bishop uses them, they give 
first, an assurance, that according to the terms of 
that gospel which they are to preach, men shall be 
pardoned or condemned: Secondly, a right of in- 
flicting ecclesiastical censures for a shorter or longer 
time and of taking them off; which, in regard to 
external communion, is retaining or forgiving of-- 
fences.’? The commission, therefore, intended to be 
conveyed by this form of Ordination, is the preach- 
ing of the gospel, the embassy of reconciliation to 
sinners, and the exercise of godly discipline within 
limits elsewhere prescribed. ‘T'o put another sense 
upon it is to go counter to the whole tone and 
spirit of the Ordinal and to suppose that it permits 
the Ordainer to choose between two forms, which, 
instead of being equivalent, are wide as the poles 
apart. The solemn charge and questions addressed 
to the candidates are equally conclusive as to the 
nature of the office which the Church confers. Not 
a word concerning the duties of sacrificing, media- 
ting, hearing confessions, &c.—an omission as sig- 
nificant as that which has been referred to of hiereus 
in the New Testament. The Church emphasizes the 
work of the preacher and the pastor—requires a 
special promise of diligence in the study of the holy 


OL 


25 


Scriptures, and urges the necessity of prayer and 
personal holiness. The Communion Office, with its 
careful avoidance of the word aléar, witnesses with 
equal distinctness. How different an office would be 
framed by men who esteemed the Eucharist a pro- 
pitiatory oblation and the minister a sacrificer? To 
the attempt to extort an argument in favor of this 
objectionable dogma from the incorporation with 
the office in the American Book of certain parts in 
the prayer of consecration. not found in the present 
English Book, we may let the venerable Bp. White 
answer: ‘‘If,”? he says,* ‘‘these forms could have 
been reasonably thought to imply that a Christian 
Minister is a priest, in the sense of an offerer of sacri- 
fice, and that the table is an altar and the elements 
a sacrifice, in any other than figurative senses, he 
would have zealously opposed the admission of such 
unevangelical sentiments as he conceives them to be. 
The English reformers carefully exploded everything 
of this sort, at the time of their issuing the first 
Book of Common Prayer, which contained the ob- 
lation and invocation,’’ And the language of our 
Homily, ‘‘Of the worthy receiving and reverent ‘‘es- 
teeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of 
Christ?’ is no less decisive. ‘‘ Make Christ thine own, 
and apply his merits unto thyself. Herein thou 
needest no other man’s help, no other sacrifice or 
oblation, no sacrificing priest, no mass, no means 
established by man’s invention.”’ 

I might apologize for occupying so much of your 
time with statements which a few years ago would 
scarce have been questioned. But at the present 
day our weight of responsibility is heavy indeed. 
There is too much at stake to permit the feeblest 
* Memoirs of the Prot. Ep. Ch. p. 154, 


26 
voice to be silent. We have been wont to glory in 
being a Communion, reformed, scriptural and pure, 
which had contended manfully for the truth of 
Christ and glorified the Lord in the fires of martyr- 
dom. Peradventure we have been too confident 
and boastful. Itis easier to build the tombs of the 
prophets and to garnish the sepulchres of the right- 
eous, than to inherit their faith and follow their 
footsteps. Now, we contemplate with anxiety pro- 
ceedings which tend to undermine the well estab- 
lished principles of our Communion and to bring in, 
little by little, the errors once abjured.. The eye 
and ear are to be gradually accustomed to a sensuous 
and superstitious ceremonial. Many of these inno- 
vations may appear trifling. If so, we ask, why 
such persistence in introducing and pressing them 
with the certain effect of producing scandals and 
divisions, destroying peace within our borders and 
strengthening prejudice and hostility without /— 
These are strong enough already. And has not the 
minister of Christ enough to do, in his legitimate 
and noble work, as ambassador from the living God, 
sent to dying men on an errand of unspeakable 
moment? Was he ordained to be a mere master of 
ceremonies? Can he find nothing more deserving 
his attention than the cut and color of garments, 
postures and bowings and crossings, rinsings and 
wipings of cups and vessels, theatrical parade and 
paltry pantomime? But, No! There is more in this 
than empty ceremonial. These things are valued 
and urged as parts of a system-—a system which we 
see full-blown elsewhere, and which we are fully 
persuaded dishonors Christ and robs his precious 
gospel of its heart and life. To this we give place 
by subjection, no, not foran hour. We should be 


ae 


27 


bound to withstand it, if need were, as the men of 
the Reformation withstood it. And we can only 
withstand it successfully, at whatever stage of de- 
velopment, whether newly fledged, insinuating and 
apologetic, or audacious and imperious, by going back 
to the pure fountain head of truth—‘‘ He that hath 
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the 
Churches.”’ 

In denying the possibility of repeating the sacri- 
fice of Calvary, and in resisting the claim of the 
Christian ministry to be sacrificing priests, we are 
bearing our humble witness for the Lord Jesus 
Christ, contending for his sacred prerogatives and 
protesting against attempts to usurp his high and 
peculhar office. It is his controversy, not ours.— 
We claim for the humblest and weakest of the peo- 
ple committed to our charge the privilege of direct 
access to a reconciled God, through Jesus as THE 
way—and of immediate, complete justification 
through faith in him, without sacerdotal interven— 
tion. In maintaining the word of Christ to be the 
complete rule of faith and practice, tolerating no 
human addition, in affirming the priesthood of Christ 
to be the only real sacrificial priesthood, and his 
death upon the cross, the solitary propitiation for 
euilt, and his intercession the only intercession that 
procures peace with God, and his blood applied by 
faith the alone cleansing from sin, and his word of 
love and power confidingly heard, the sole absolu- 
tion, and his presence not a degradation in material 
elements, but a spiritual presence in the hearts of 
the faithful—we are contending for the faith once for 
all delivered to the saints. 

I have thus spoken on the present occasion from 
profound conviction that, upon no other principles 


28 


than these, can our Church be a joy and praise and 
blessing in this land. As these truths are obscured 
or renounced the salt will lose its savor and the 
light will grow dim. Only as we honor Christ will 
He honor us. Only as we are true to the principles 
of the Reformation can we justly challenge confidence 
and adhesion. If not a thoroughly Protestant 
Church we have no right to be a Church at all.— 
Upon no other principles can our distinct ecclesias- 
tical position be vindicated. If we are not justi- 
fied in the protest made by our Articles, the Refor- 
mation was an indefensible schism, and we are guilty 
of rending the body of Christ. And we live in an 
age and among a people too intelligent not to dis- 
cover such contradiction. If they want sacerdo- 
talism or mediaevalism, man’s pardon and not God’s, 
they know where to find them in ripe perfection. 
We can only prosper, and only deserve to prosper, 
as we stand upon the broad, firm platform of apos- 
tolic Christianity, and make Jesus himself the Al- 
pha and Omega, the sun and the centre, the author 
and finisher of our faith. 

A bright vision has oft risen before my mind of a 
Church pure and primitive, combining the early or- 
ganization, zeal and love, with the freshness, energy 
and progressiveness of the times—gathering from 
past ages experience, wisdom and liturgic treasures, 
while discarding utterly all corrupt additions and 
cleansing the temple from all profane intrusions— 
conservative without being narrow and bigoted—lib- 
eral without being lax—a true interpreter of holy 
writ and yet referring all men not to her own inter- 
pretations but to the living oracles—rebuking with 
power, worldliness and wickedness, sympathizing 
with all that is good and heaven-born—a rallying 


29 
point for those who are weary of sectarian strife, a 
candlestick of the Lord, whose radiance should il- 
lumine our cities and forests, our mountains and 
plains. Is such an ideal never to be realized? Is 
it but a dream and cloud picture ? 

What a work might we perform, dear brethren, if 
we were all of one heart and of one mind, striving 
together for the faith of the gospel? How wide the 
field! How white the harvest! How pressing the 
need of the leaves of the tree of life which are for 
the healing of the nations! Has our Church in her 
structure and standards advantages for such a part ? 
True to her Lord and to her faith might she exert a 
most potent and blessed influence, attract and mold 
the mighty and seething elements of this Western 
world, and head the phalanx in the grand warfare 
against the kingdom of sin, Satan and death ? 

It is a noteworthy fact that at the present time 
many thoughtful and earnest minds are turned to the 
important subject of Christian unity. There is deep 
dissatisfaction with the divided and distracted con- 
dition of our Christianity. Many, whom I address, 
sincerely sympathize with this feeling ? 

In what direction then shall this desire for unity 
tend? Shall it waste its force in reachings after 
fellowship with Communions remote in position, su- 
perstitious in practice if not unsound in doctrine, 
encrusted with prejudice, stiffened by unchangeable 
habits? Or shall it seek its satisfaction among 
Christians near at hand, bound to us by ties of lan- 
guage and lineage, of country and custom, reveren- 
cing the same Bible, not only in substance, but in 
letter, and deriving therefrom the same great funda- 
mental doctrines? Shall we knock with fruitless 
importunity at sombre moss-grown portals to be 


30 
coldly repulsed ; or, if permitted to enter, compelled 
to leave behind us what is precious and true ; or 


shall we extend fraternal greetings to those who 
might value them and respond? Shall we embrace 


the dead past or the living present? Go back to the > 


cloister? Or press into the highways and thorough- 
fares? Shall pure, holy, life-giving truth be the 
magnetic force—gently but irresistibly attractive ?— 
Or outward uniformity of ecclesiastical structure be 
the iron band and compression? Should we not 
enquire earnestly, brethren, what are our pressing 
and peculiar duties to the land in which God 
hath placed us—among a people who are making 
such gigantic strides in knowledge, wealth and 
power? What is our responsibility for the future 
of America? I speak to those in whose hearts 
there is deep conviction that we, as a Com- 
munion, possess peculiar and great advantages for 
consolidating the elements of truth, combining the 
fragmentary masses and spreading throughout our 
nation the knowledge of Christ. If this be so, then 
‘Unto whom much is given, of the same much will 
be required.’’ Talents are not bestowed to inflate 
the possessors with pride and vanity, but to be hon- 
estly and diligently improved. How far an out- 
ward unity among Protestant Christians is essential 
or possible is a question involving difficulty and di- 
versity of opinion. But surely mutual respect, 
confession of brotherhood in Christ, and kindly 
interchange of views are exceedingly to be desired ; 
and, if unity be attainable in any degree, thus must 
the way be prepared. Can we do nothing to facili- 
tate such an object? Can we remove no barriers 
and stumbling—blocks from the way? If there be 
expressions In our formularies, which, through ‘am- 


Logie sre, 


ee es eee ee 


ee ae 


ae 


a, ee ee ee ee ee — 


31 

biguity or misinterpretation, have been the fruitful 
source of internal discord and external prejudice, 
and which might, without sacrifice of truth, be so 
worded as to obviate the difficulties of thousands 
of honest hearts, and wonderfully extend our fold— 
are we under no obligation to consider the matter? 
Has our dear Lord, so often wounded in the house 
of His friends, no voice to be heard in our solemn 
assembly? It would seem to me the deeper aman’s 
conviction that his pattern of Christianity is the pat- 
tern shewed on the mount, and the stronger his 
sense of the evils of division, and the more elevated 
his views of the origin of the ministry and polity he 
advocates, the more ready he should be to impart 
and extend them, by any concessions that com- 
promise no essential doctrine. 

And if we are bound to enquire what we can do 
to facilitate the approach of those without our bor- 
ders, surely not less is the obligation to promote 
peace and harmony within. Mutual forbearance 
and fraternal consideration are imperative duties.— 
To prevent discords and conciliate differences is no 
less important than to heal separations. The spirit 
of schism may be rife where outward bonds are un- 
broken—may be as real and bitter in overbearing 
intolerance, as in unreasonable complaint and im- 
patience of mild and rightful authority. Sincere 
conciliation involves no evasion of duty or conceal- 
ment of truth; no sacrifice of conviction or compro- 
mise of principles. True unity is not a hollow 
truce—an armed neutrality—the fire covered over 
but smouldering beneath the ashes. It can be at- 
tained only by speaking the truth in love, by ami- 
cable discussion, by fervent prayer, by bowing to 
God’s own word, and by the influence of that blessed 


32 


Spirit who is the author not of confusion but of 


peace in all the Churches of the saints. 
Through the good Providence of God we meet 
again as representatives of one Communion, extend- 


ing over this broad land from ocean to ocean,and from - 


the lakes to the gulf. We rejoice that every Diocese 
is represented and that each of our legislative houses 
is full and complete. 

For this, answer.to many prayers and this con- 
summation of many devont wishes, God’s holy name 
be praised. 

May the God to whom we ascribe this happy re- 
union vouchsafe unto us His favorable presence, so 
that all our deliberations may promote the advance- 
 mentof that kingdom which is righteousness and 

peace and joy in the Holy Ghost—and we may be 

found an acceptable people at the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and 
the Holy Ghost, be glory in ie highest, now and: 
forever. Amen. 


The ‘Alaine Press. 


; 
a 


